Curtis Cutshaw
“My work is unseen in its formation. Unlike generations of abstraction, my work is not drawn from the self. My work is not a representation of a mark taken from my hand alone and the inner self is initially unrelated to the creation of the line.
It is drawn from a vertical and horizontal connection to nature, unseen with the eye but felt with the soul.Once back in the studio, I am left with a language that is foreign. It is with this language, the mark of feeling, that I write the sentences and complete the story of connection. I have always seen my drawing as figuration. Each image is alive, breathes, and exists. Each drawing gives a presence, a certainty, and a quiet confidence waiting for the viewer to engage”
Read More ...
“My work gives form to the formless. It is a reaction to a mark, not from inspiration, but a mark from nature. Using dowsing rods, walking across open land with pen attached and paper in hand, I find the structure of the drawing.
Just as sailboats harness the wind and a full sail pushes a ship forward, my body is a receptor to the water below, controlling the uncontrollable. Though a sailor does not have complete control of the wind, where wind is found, it can be used. Walking over the ground I find water deep below the surface. I search for feeling, a movement. When it is found, the pen moves creating the line. I use the push and pull of the reaction my dowsing rod brings to form a drawing. The motion of my steps interacts with the movement of the pen; if I stop walking, so stops the line. It is a delicate balance between nature and the hand.
Where my hand would naturally go left, the pen now goes right. The framework set up through the drawing is dictated by the external with a removal of the personal. They are moments trapped in time with a line; records of my connection to nature.”
Read Less
Recent Artwork
Video Interviews
Artist Information
Artist Website: curtis-cutshaw.blogspot.ca/
Based in Calgary, Alberta, CurtisCutshaw received his B.F.A from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 1989. While still a student, Cutshaw was accepted to the New York Loft Program through the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design where he was mentored by well known American artists Peter Halley and David Diao. After graduation, Cutshaw then attended the prestigious residency program at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhagen, Maine, USA, and was the first artist from Calgary to be accepted since 1973. British artist John Walker and American artists Terry Winters, Connie Fox and Bill King mentored him. Cutshaw has shown across Canada and in numerous international exhibitions and his work is included in many collections including Alberta Foundation For The Arts, Cenovus Energy, Encana Corporation, Mount Royal University, Shell Canada Limited and Wilson Laycraft LLP. Kostuik Gallery has represented Curtis Cutshaw since 2000.
Curtis Cutshaw’s mediums have always included painting and drawing. In 2005, he developed a unique approach to drawing where he acts as the “medium” through which dowsing rods, held by the artist, move when water is found underground. With pens on paper held beneath them, several layers of lines are recorded, much like a seismograph. They are then scanned, enlarged and colored, each image sized according to the scale. His work has progressed into painting and collage on panel to his newest series of assemblages, a combination of found signage and repurposed wood. His artist statements reflect his preference to relay the story of discovery and relation in his mind in the fruition of a new series and then later the evolution of his thoughts over the time span of the series life.
Residence: Calgary, Alberta
Born: Edmonton, Alberta 1967
Education
1989 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine, USA Summer Residency Program
1989 Alberta College of Art, Calgary, AB, Canada, Diploma of Painting (with Distinction)
Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, New York, NY, USA New York Loft Program
1986 Red Deer College, Red Deer, AB, Canada Summer Painting Residency Program
Selected Exhibitions
2018 Curtis Cutshaw, Tew Galleries, Atlanta, GA
2017 Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Group Show, Vancouver BC
2017 50, Solo Show, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2017 Summer Group Show, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2017 20 Years Kostuik Gallery, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver BC
2016 Curtis Cutshaw New Work, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2016 Construct, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver BC
2015 Backroom, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver BC
2015 Summer Group Show, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2014 Levels and Constructs, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2014 HK Summer 14 Group Show, The Painters, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2014 Winter Group Show, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver BC
2013 Group Show, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver BC
2013 Art Rise. The Art Gallery of Calgary
2013 Art for Food-Group Show. Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2013 Winter Group Show. Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2012 Watermark, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2012 Art for Food, group show Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2012 Watermark, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, AB
2012 Indigo, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2011 Art for Food, group show Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
2011 Pull, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2010 Fresh Paint, Alberta Foundation for the Arts Traveling Exhibition, AB
2010 Sketchbook Project, Art House Coop, Brooklyn NY
2009 Group Exhibition, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2008 Summer Group Exhibition, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2007 Group Show, Halde Galerie, Widen, Switzerland
2007 The Dowsing Rod Series, Skew Gallery, Calgary, AB
2007 Blindspot, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2007 The Dowsing Rod Series, SKEW Gallery, Calgary AB
2006 Advent, Halde Galerie, Widen, Switzerland
2006 Curtis Cutshaw New Work, Halde Galerie, Widen Switzerland
2005 Sprung: Group Exhibition, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver BC
2005 Breathing Light, Skew Gallery, Calgary, AB
2004 Wet Paint, Group Show, Skew Gallery, Calgary, AB
2004 A Hundred Cares, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2001 Royer Group, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2001 Abstraction, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, AB
2000 Fresh, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1998 Miramar, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, AB
1997 Four Independents, Deacon Ulrich Fine Arts, Calgary, AB
1995 CUTSHAW, HALLIDAY, KOTTMANN, Sebastian Yoon Fine Arts, Calgary, AB
1992 Miramar, New Paintings by Curtis Cutshaw, 371 Gallery, Alberta College of Art & Design, Calgary
1989 Twenty Painters, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture,Skowhegan, Maine, USA
1989 Graduating Students Exhibition, Alberta College of Art, Main Gallery, Calgary, AB
1988 Group Show, Alberta College of Art, Student Gallery, Calgary, AB
1988 Four Painters: Curtis Cutshaw, Barbra Leidl, Yvonne Markotic, Brenda Whiteman, DL Gallery, Calgary, AB
1988 Pentimental, Alberta College of Art, Student Gallery, Calgary, AB
1987 Twenty Paintings by Curtis Cutshaw, Alberta College of Art, Mall Gallery, Calgary AB
1980 The First Annual Awards Reception Show, Alberta College of Art, Student Gallery, Calgary, AB
1980 Fusion, Mount Royal College, Calgary, AB
1980 Nineteen in 89-ACA Painting Graduates, Mixed Media Gallery, Calgary, AB
1980 Works on Paper, Emily Carr College of Art & Design, Vancouver, BC
Awards
1990 The Alberta Award
1989 Laura Mae Stillings Award
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture
1988 Benniy & Smith Canada LTD. Award
Illingworth Kerr Scholarship, New York Loft Program
1987 Calgary Sketch Club Award
Art Fairs
2017 TIAF, Toronto International, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Toronto ON
2016 Context New York, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, New York, NY
2014 TIAF, Toronto International, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Toronto ON
2012 artMRKT San Francisco, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, San Francisco CA
2011 Art Miami, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Miami FL
2011 TIAF, Toronto International, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Toronto ON
2010 TIAF, Toronto International, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Toronto ON
2007 Photo Miami, SKEW Gallery, Miami FL
2006 Photo Miami, Miami Basel, Miami FL
The Subconscious Voice – View
2012 Swerve Magazine April 2012
2012 Preview the Gallery Guide, review April 2012, Mia Johnson
2007 Scott Rogers, Strange Creatures: Curtis Cutshaw’s subtle, energetic works, FFWD Weekly, May 24 2007
Nancy Tousley, Divining a new way of Drawing, Calgary Herald, May 20, 2007, C4
2005 Emily Barnett, Art & Style: A Guild to Art for the Home, Beautiful Homes Magazine, Dec. 2005, pg 55.
Nice Homes Magazine, May 2005 Page 32.
Curtis Cutshaw, Galleries West Magazine, Summer 2005 Page 30.
2004 CBC News, Evening News, Vancouver, BC.
Lin Connery, The Next Wave: Calgary’s Rising Young Artists, Calgary Herald, Sept.4, 2000, pg AG1 AG2.
1988 Kate Zimmerman, Travel Broadens Students’ Vistas, The Calgary Herald, April 22, 1989, Section D, pg7.
1070 Homer Street,
Vancouver, BC, V6B 2W9, Canada
T. 604.737.3969
E. info@kostuikgallery.com